The density of data stored on media in data transducing systems continues to increase, requiring more precise positioning of the transducing head. Conventionally, in many systems, head positioning is accomplished by operating an actuator arm with a large scale actuation motor, such as a voice coil motor, to position a head on a flexure at the of the suspension arm. The large scale motor lacks sufficient resolution to effectively accommodate high data density. A high resolution head positioning mechanism, or microactuator, is advantageous to accommodate the high data density.
As data transducing systems are developed for diverse applications, including portable electronics for example, it is often desirable to provide a device that has a small vertical thickness. However, for dual stage systems that include a large scale actuation motor and a suspension-level microactuator, a piezoelectric element and a suspension stiffening element are employed that increase vertical thickness. Increased vertical thickness limits the interconnect options to the piezoelectric element and also has a negative effect on the shock performance of the device, in addition to increasing the weight and footprint of the device. A design that allows for dual stage actuation with reduced vertical thickness compared to prior dual stage designs would be desirable.